To every distant shore sometime in the past five hundred years, the light-skinned stranger came, bearing Western civilization. Him image was recorded by native artists that left a graphic record that marked a fateful moment in the history of world culture. And in the main, it is an extremely good tempered reply.
Below: “Better to live two weeks as a tiger,” Tipu was fond of saying, “than a lifetinme as a lamb.” The tiger gnawing at the neck of a hapless British colonel was the six foot “toy” of Tipu Sahib, sultan of Mysore. The sound mechanism of the interior organ were intended to ” resemble the cries of a person in distress intermixed with the roar of a Tyger. The machinery is so contrived that while the Organ is playing, the hand of the European is often lifted up, to express his helpless and deplorable condition.” ( V&A Museum) In any case, the musical tiger became the symbol of Tipu’s consuming hatred of the British and his desire for revenge. Tipu died as he had lived, shot down, sword in hand at the palace gate, a the musical tiger and screams of his favorite victim was sent back to England in a shipload of trophies.
---“Tipu’s Tiger” is one of the most popular exhibits at the Victoria and Albert Museum. For generations, British school children and American tourists have lined up to watch the large mechanical tiger maul a fallen British gentleman. Today the toy is too fragile to operate, but once upon a time the tiger roared and its victim screamed when the mechanical device was activated. Tipu’s Tiger is a fascinating example of eighteenth century clockwork, designed to appeal to the ghoulish eight year old that lurks inside each of us. But that’s not the main reason it occupies prime space at the V & A. The gruesome mechanical toy belonged to Tipu Sultan, the self-proclaimed “Tiger of Mysore and once a serious threat to British power in India. Seen through the perspective of the British Raj at its height, it’s easy to forget how precarious the British position in India was in the eighteenth century. The East India Company was only one of several regional powers competing to fill the power vacuum left by the disintegrating Moghul Empire. One of the most powerful of the Company’s rivals was the state of Mysore in southern India.---Read More:http://www.historyinthemargins.com/2011/08/09/history-on-display-tipus-tiger/
In the main, we are dealing with the first or at least early contacts between whites and other men. It was a period of innocence, of unselfconsciousness, of experiment and of a certain intense curiosity. The native artist was still true to his own environment; he observed directly and without fear, and because he had no knowledge of other skills and cultures that were more, or appeared more sophisticated than his won, at least from a Western context, the artist did not imitate. Of course, it was just a brief interlude in the world and it could not last; eventually there would be a confrontation with what was termed the “doubt and calculation” implicit in the feverish life of the white world.
---The trial of the Mahanta, from a series illustrating the Tarakeshwar murder Object: Painting Place of origin: Calcutta, India (Made) Date: c.1875 (Painted)---Read More:http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O100916/painting-the-trial-of-the-mahanta/
Above: In the new Kalighat style of painting, an actual Calcutta murder trial is portrayed. A Hindu priest has seduced a pretty Indian girl. Her jealous husband decapitated her and was promptly tried for murder. The detached trunk, and head of the girl, still wearing arm jewelry and earrings, lie as evidence before the bay faced English judge wearing the top hat which the bazaar artists associated with the British.The husband in the foreground is held by a local policeman, while the bearded priest tells his story in the witness box. The fate of the unfortunate husband rests on the outcome of the contest being waged between the defense and the prosecuting attorneys behind him.
Read More:http://www.artfinder.com/tag/aztec/
In Montezuma’s Mexico. Above: An episode in the final conquest of Tenochtitlan is told in the Codex Azcatitlan which reflects the European influence on the native Aztec style. The Spaniard Pedro de Alvarado fights off an Aztec while the wounded Cortes, who had fallen into one of the canals with other Spaniards, receives aid from a native ally.
---Anonymous Japanese, NAMBAN SCREEN: PORTUGUESE SHIP LANDING. DETAIL: PORTUGUESE TRADERS ON SHIPBOARD (ca 1500-1700). Courtesy of WorldArt Kiosk/Kathleen Cohen.--- Read More:http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/archive.html?f_itemNumber=2517&return=15-3
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